covert

• advantage

  • reduces risk of people alternating their behaviour (Hawthorne effect) - but addition of a new member (researcher) can still change group’s behaviour
  • theoretical - valid - researcher can gather more in-depth data because they can see the group in their natural environments - but it isn’t replicable which decreases reliability of study
• disadvantage 

  • practical - researcher has to rely on memory because they can’t openly take notes eg in Ditton’s study of theft amongst bread delivery men, he had to use toilet to record observations (increases suspicions)
  • ethical - researcher can’t get informed consent from this method - only able to do so after research